Technology
Fusion Power "Fusion power" refers to the net energy produced as a result of the nuclear fusion process. For the popular space music band, see: "F.U.sionPower". Fusion power refers to the modern day production of energy through a nuclear fusion reaction. As of the year 2113, the International Energy Agency estimates that 97% of all energy is produced through fusion, the other 3% being accounted for by solar, tide, and wind energy, as well as fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum sold on the Black Market. Fusion power is regarded by many as a technological achievment unparalleled in the history of humankind, responsible for a whole array of other milestones, such as the elimination of world hunger through energy intensive aquaponics. It is also widely believed to have been the solution to the global climate change problem of the 20th and 21st century. 'History' Usable net energy production through fusion was believed impossible by academia during the 20th and early 21st century, however, with aggressive government funding brought about by the ever increasing threat of climate change, key breakthroughs were made during the 30s and the 40s that set fusion power as the most viable alternative to fossil fuels, which had been officially outlawed following the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's decision to gradually phase out the production and use of fossiel fuels. Many historians state that the illegalization of fossil fuels was due to public pressure on governments to act after the 2024 Floridian Exile which left millions displaced by climate change related flooding, however scholars of the revisionist neo-conservative school argue that the I.P.C.C.'s decision was due to lobby pressure from renewable energy corporations, who sought to monopolize the energy market. Regardless, both camps of historians agree that in the following two decades, a fierce and bitter battle was fought between fusion and "green" renewable energy, though there was also a small but vocal minority who favored conventional fission nuclear power (mainly the French, whose president famously said after losing the 2034 World Cup to Japan: : “We may not have Sekiya's lightning ball control, but we have the new Generation IV reactors. Viva la France!" : (The president later resigned after the Generation IV Reactor Mix Up of 2035 in which France's national supply of cigarettes was contaminated by radioactive fallout, resulting in severe annoyance and an economic recession out of spite) Though fusion power suffered severe setbacks in the 40s, with extreme Green Peace groups sabotaging fusion power plants, by the year 2050, fusion power was commercially superior to "green" renewable energy sources in yuan per killowat, and had come out the victor in the energy war. With the halfway point of the 21st century just passed, the Fusion Age began, and Generation Fu was born. Throughout the 50s, 60s, and 70s, further innovations continued to be made in the area of fusion power, spurned by the investment of the billionaire utopianist society Eden Again, until energy and electricity became ubiquotous, free, and unlimited. In the 80s, there was also a push to make fusion reactors small, safe and able to be integrated into any device requiring electricity, thereby making such a device entirely independent of non-local electricity. To this effect, as of the year 2113, many devices no longer require non-local electricity, powered by small, friendly nuclear batteries marketed as "everlasting". Citizens around the globe and many on Mars admit that this is indeed the case, however, all devices powered by such batteries have the curious tendency to smell like French cheese, a now extint and regrettable food stuff that enjoyed some popularity in the early 17th and 21st century. Transporation In the globalized, Fusion Age world of Generation Fu, transporation is ever important, from hyperfast movement of goods across oceans and below the Earth to the solar sail technology that allows colonists and elderly retired to reach Mars in a fortnight. Major advancements in the technology of transportation are long distance vaccum tunnels, the fusion engine, and the mass production of personal submarines, hellicopters, and amphibio-aerial hybrid cars. Forays have been made into off-track levitation technology, but as of 2113, the progress has been limited to consumer hoverboards and scooters. 'Local' Modern travel at the local level is the slowest and most dangerous. In cars, through a combination of GPS, limited AI, and a wireless synchornization with a driver's Contacts, the individual can select varying degrees of control of the figurative "steering wheel", which modern cars no longer have a physical representation of, the legislation allowing this succssfully having gone into effect after the World Court case of United Taxi Drivers v. Honda Motor Company, Ltd. As dramatic are the mechanical feature changes in the last century, some of which are the substitution of forward-backward wheels with gyroscropic balls capable of 360 degree mobility, the replacement of the gas tank with a local fusion reactor, and the elimination of all windows with ultra-durable Digital Glass, which allows a 360 panoramic view of outside of the vehicle while also being six times stronger than the previously used lamminated, annealed glass, saving countless of lives in car crashes. Accidents are, however, extremely rare due to hypersensitive automatic break control, which can be toggled on or off depending on the user's preference. To this date, there have been only three cases of accidents when the automatic break control was engaged, none of which were fatal. The majority of taxi services in cities have dissapeared due to the advances in AI technology and automated driving, and the niche of public transportation has been filled by an increase in semi-automated busses and levitating magnet trains, both of which have drivers who operate the vehicles in a similar joint manner with AI and GPS as an individual does an automobile. The slow, idle and companion-rich experience of public transportation is emphasized, to give individuals a reason to choose public transportation over private, to meet new people, to see new sights, and to spend a day of which thanks to modern medicine and robotics, an individual now has many upon many. Another form of personal transport are off-rail hoverboards and hoverscooters, but due to their inability to travel across terrain not containing substances able to be magnetized for levitation, they are not widespreadlly used, and as such, research and funding of them is not heavy. There is also a public image of hover technology as "outdated" and "so 20th century", acclaimed Harvard sociologist Joe Sekiya (son of Jun Sekiya, hero of the 2034 World Cup) saying: : "There is an inherent desire in all generations to defy what the last generation has thought of as "cool". As hover technology was popularized by the 2014 re-make of Back to the Future (which by the way, was horrible), it is only natural that the current generation, Generation Fu goes against the previous one. For example, one might even look at the term I used: "cool". Now, this was the late 20th and early 21st century equivalent of how modern youth say "lukewarm" to indicate that something is good, pleasing, and has merit, or some sort of a redeeming quality. In the same way the previous generation thought it was lukewarm to say cool instead of "groovy" (a 20th century term), the current generation think it is lukewarm to say lukewarm instead of cool. It's all very confusing stuff, you have to go to Harvard to understand it." : (For more on the Sekiya Hypothesis, see: Harvard University. For more on Harvard University, see: Ghanaian Institutions of Higher Learning and/or Re-location of the Ivy League to West Africa ) Personal submarines, hellicoptors and amphibio-aerial hybrid cars are widely availible, and are affordably priced for anybody who has an interest in buying one, due to the Great Luxurization pushed forward by the billionaire utopianist society Eden Again in the late 90s, however though many own such vehicles, they are not seen as efficient methods of transportation and are only used occasionally for recreation. Specialized, highly durable versions of the vehicles are also availible, catered towards hobbyists such as adventurers and explorers. The Underground counter-culture movement has given rise to an interest in old cars, motor bikes and fossiel fuel based vehicles, resulting in a lucrative niche in the Black Market for antique transports and the fuel that powers them. Such antique motor junkeys are known as Roadsters, and are heavily frowned upon by the rest of the society due to the high amount of deaths Roadsters cause, making up 64% of all transportation related deaths annually in the world. It should be noted, however, that the majority of these fatalities are the Roadsters themselves, most of which have never seen a seatbelt and wonder what that weird strap thing is rubbing into their shoulder on the driving seat. Surviving roadsters, when confronted on whether there was a seatbelt present in the vehicle usually respond that they had cut it off their seats thinking it was some strange 21st century sales tag, similar to ones found on the backside of one's underwear. The elusive 2011 Toyota Prius v is particularly sought after by male Roadsters, who believe that the Prius aesthetically oozes with masculinity and will help them get a girlfriend. 'Global' Modern inter-continental travel is accomplished by three methods: the first, by conventional, high-speed airplanes that skim the stratosphere, the second, by long distance vaccum tunnels that transport frictionless pods at speeds exceeding the stratoplanes, and the third, by fusion ships that are used soley for high risk or exceptionally large cargo or goods. The vaccum tunnels are preferred by delivery services and in the movement of goods and non-passengers, as an accident involving a puncture of the vaccum tunnel is highly explosive and more frequent than one in a stratoplane or on a fusion ship. The vaccum tunnels run below ground, and under the sea floor, and are in turn housed by larger tunnels which act as stations for the docking and unloading of goods and passengers. The energy required to increase the speed of the pod through pressurized air is almost completely recycled by the breaking mechanisms, as there is no loss of energy through friction in the vaccum. This was one of the vaccum's selling points during the early 40s, though with the advent of cheap ubiquotous fusion power conserving energy is no longer a major concern. The stratoplanes and fusion ships at their core are simply quicker, safer, and more efficient versions of their predecessors, airplanes and freighters, and as such, will not be gone into explicit detail as the author is hungry and needs a break. One detail will be divuldged, however: all such upgrades of conventional modes of transportation still lack complementary brown paper bags for passengers to vommit into in case of motion sickness. This phenomenon, known as Kepler's Rule states that no matter how technologically advanced and utopian a civilization gets, by a fudamental law of nature known as Kepler's Constant, brown paper bags will always be a 42 cents extra charge on the invoice at the end of the trip. 'Space' Modern space travel was gradually transformed during the 40s and 50s with advances in solar sail technology that allowed spacecraft to reach maximum speeds far exceeding that of previous rocket propulsion models. This paved the way for more and more frequent manned missions to the Moon, and combined with the utilization of robots to aid the base's skeleton construction crew, a base on the moon was built and successfully run, demonstrating that permanent, self-sustained extra-terrestrial living was possible and also economically viable. With the sucess of the Moon Base experiment, the Interplanetary Networking Program gained widespread support in the International Space Agency , and the mission to settle Mars and build a similar base on Martian soil was approved. With further advances in solar sail technology as well as a new form of fusion rockets that would allow a spaceraft to reach 5% of light speed, the Martian Explorer I expedition was planned. The expedition resulted in the catastrophic failure of the new fusion rockets, and a second expedition was attempted using the same fusion rockets. After an unrelated error and public pressure that it was too soon to use the new fusion rockets, the International Space Agency sent fusion rockets back into development and adopted the sole use of solar sails in the expedition. The third expedition was a resounding success and as of 2113, the progress the I.N.P. is making is encouraging. The problem fraught fusion rocket propulsion system has also been re-approved by the I.S.A. and the first voyage to Mars with the system is scheduled for late 2114. The rockets are now capable of 14% of light speed, with engineers claiming that they will achieve light speed by the year 2150. Pleasure cruises into orbit remain popular in the year 2113, and with the constant improvement of space travel, more and more curious travelers are able to visit the moon on commercial flights. The Moon Base has found a second life as a vacation resort for tourists interested in an exotic get away. There is also a sizable population of migrant poets, writers, and philosophers who have bought permanent apartments on the Moon Base to ponder the infinitiy of Time and Space. Personal transports capable of reaching the moon are yet to be economically viable, but leading engineers and economists predict that it is only a matter of time before scientific advances and market forces remedy this. Philosophers argue that it is only a matter of time before anything happens, really, but as the majority of them are up on the moon, their opinion on the Earth remains that of an existential minority. Food Hunger in modern society no longer exists, thanks to widespread, energy intensive aquaponics made possible by the unlimited energy of fusion power. Cuisine is globalized, and it is possible to find high quality food of any culture anywhere. In addition, food is genetically modified to be especially nutritious, and so all forms of diseases linked to malnutrition have ceased to exist, and obesity and diabetes has been completely eradicated. Animals are no longer killed for meat, as it is viewed as unethical to kill a living being for its meat in modern society. Instead, meat is grown in labs in vitro. Robotics Artificial intelligence has developed steadily over the decades, but has not reached a point that early 21st century futurists labeled "the Singularity", and even the most advanced super computer of the day cannot be labeled as much more intelligent than a human being. Artificial intelligence is more often than used to supplement and work in concert with human intelligence rather than surrplant it, and the possibility of a robot revolution seems remote. Human likeliness in robots is purposefully avoided and the prevailing philosophy of engineering is "form follows function", with robots designed directly for the job they are meant to do. Medicine Modern medicine of the 22nd century is divided into two main schools: cybernetic and cellular. Cybernetic medicine involves the bionic replacements of human body parts and the use of nanobots to eliminate cancer and other illnesses, whereas cellular medicine covers the areas of genetic engineering and growing replacement organs in vitro. Much that one school of medicine can do can be done by the other, and there are many purists of either school who believe in only receiving treatment from one or the other. The majority of society, however, receives varying combinations of the two schools' treatment, for example, a man altering his genetics for stronger upper body strength could then suplement this with robotic parts to create a synergy reaching greater superhuman heights than if one had only opted for one form of medicine. Basic cellular and cybernetic medicine is universally provided by a combination of state and private contractors, after the acess to free, quick, and highly effective health care was added to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 2067, and then enforced by the Global Health Care Act of 2069. After the Great Luxurization in which the gap of wealth between the citizens of the world was significantly closed, even countries thought of before as poor such as France were able to afford 'luxury' medicine, such as bionic enhancements and genetic engineering, avoiding the schism many futurologists feared in the early 21st century that humanity would diverge into two distinct species, the Naturals and the Enhanced. While some still choose to refrain from engaging in any sort of advanced medicine, their numbers are very few and limited to secluded communes such as the Pot Amish, who abolished their previous barter system with bushels of marijuana as currency. Another commonly held belief by the Pot Amish is that marijuana still illegal, though of course, the crop was universally legalized in the late 30s, a special, genetically engineered strain of it even replacing morphine as the leading anesthesia by the 50s, this in turn causing the economic renaissance of Africa with Ghana at its forefront. 'Cybernetics' ''Nanobots'' With the constant shrinking of computers and robots in the early 21st century due to Moore's Law , cybernetic medicine took off in full in the 40s after the size of nanobots reached the cellular level, able to freely navigate blood vessels and the body to repair damaged cells, eliminate cancerous growths, and neutralize any other external threat to an individual's health, such as viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi. Cancer was effectively cured by the 60s, with any emergence of tumors being taken care of immediately by a formidable mix of early detection and elimination by nanobot technology. The common cold has been held at bay with vaccinations able to be downloaded into one's nanobots, which change their shape depending on the donwloaded blue print of the antibody shape needed to stop the season's strain of the cold. In this way, thousands of vaccinations are able to be downloaded painlessly and immediately, and the war on disease seems to have been won, though occasionally, natural evolution outstrips the artificial evolution of the nanobots and an outbreak of a new disease occurs. In this case, an individual may go to a specialty hospital for more intensive care, and through a combination of drugs and treatments tailored to an individual's sequenced genome, the disease is almost always beaten. ''Bionics'' At the same time, steady advances in bionics have led to prosthetic limbs superior to normal biological ones, and this has in turn led to a mass movement of enhancing oneself with bionics. For aesthetic reasons, the prosthetics and bionic enhancements and supplementary parts are blended into normal human physiology, and so enhanced human beings are indistinguishable at face value from an individual who has chosen not to be bionically enhanced. Some individuals dispaly better control and manipulation of their bionic enhancements than others, and as the manipulation and control of these enhancements seems to improve with practice, modern sports has adapted to take advantage of this and showcase it in competition. Bionic contact lenses have also been created, and are widespreadly used, giving the user instant access to the Internet and a projected computer screen which only the user will be able to see, its virtual mouse and keyboard controllable by the user's mind. The contact lenses also give the wearer the ability to see into the far high and low ends of the electromagnetic spectrum. The contact lenses are capable of recording 4k video with 10.1 Dolby surround sound, and have zoom capabilities capable of a x50 magnification. 'Cellular Medicine' ''In Vitro Organs'' In the 40s, the first transplant through in vitro organ growth was successfully achieved, and in the following decade, the industry of in vitro organ growth saw a huge boom with an individual's DNA used to grow virtually any part of the human body, from the heart and lung to the liver and kidney. As the organ is of the same genetic make up as the individual's own, rejection does not occur. The process utilizes stem cell technology and creating a "scaffold" on which to grow the new organ. Though initially, animal organs were used to provide "scaffolding" on which to grow new human organs, this practice was deemed unethical after the outlawing of meat obtained from dead animals, and currently, the scaffolding is printed on 3-D printers using synthetic materials. The transplantation process has an unparalleled success rate, with advancements in robotics and lasers allowing surgery to be hyperaccurate. ''Genetic Engineering and Immortality'' Another key advancement in the field of cellular medicine is post-birth genetic engineering, a process which involves an individual being able to choose his own genetic modifications prior to puberty. This process gained widespread popularity after severe ethical concerns in the 30s over the genetic engineering of a fetus who had no power in the decision making process. There have been forays into genetic engineering at any stage in the life of an individual, with mixed success, but leading experts of the field predict that an individual's final complete control of his DNA and body is stil thirty years away. Similarly, true immortality is predicted to be achieved in a similar time span, with researchers experimenting with eliminating the final road block to immorality, the well-documented "Death Gene", which is responsible for the inevitable death of an individual. 'Illegal Drug Use' The Underground counter-culture movement has spawned amongst followers the renewed use of drugs such as Nyquil™ and Tylenol™, which after the Cold Medicine Problem of 2034 were banned and replaced with traditional Chinese remedies™ proven to be far more effective. Vicks Vaporub™, a hard in-front-of-the-counter drug of the early 21st century is the most dangerous of the dark canon of illegal substances, with users ingesting the drug spreading it onto toast. The drug has many street names, some of which are "Gelwhite", "Sticky Vicky", "Vub", and "Nice Blue". Ten grams of the drug goes for as high as ten-thousand yuan, and the penalty of dealing the substance is one hundred years. Vicks Vaporub™ claims more lives each year than global transportation casualties, and as of 2113, severe legislation is being drafted to stamp out the product on the Black Market. Time Dissonance Time dissonance is a phenomenon that had been commonly referred to as time travel roughly before the 22nd century. As of now, the concept of time dissonance differs from that of time travel in a sense that time dissonance deals with the idea of manipulation of spacetime , whereas time travel deals with the idea of interstellar, intergalactic, an or multiversal travelling. Time consonance is an everyday phenomenon through individual and collective cognitive experiences. Time dissonance acts as a binary opposite to that of time consonance, where spacetime dissonance is created through the basis of the chaos theory . Origin ''Exogenesis Project'' In 4th June 2064, the first time dissonance phenomenon occurred in an underwater basement of the fusion-powered Exogenesis Research Center and its Project funded by the International Space Alliance . The first time dissonance was a text message received five seconds before it was actually sent. The incident of the text message gained interplanetary attention, on Earth, Moon, and Mars also. Much of its attention was due to the controversy regarding possible paradoxes regarding the text messages . ''Pragmatic-agnostic Theory'' Initially after the incident, the most coherent and cited theory that partially explains the success of the time dissonance caused by the “time travel” of the text message was the pragmatic-agnostic theory. The pragmatic-agnostic theory explains the dissonance by simply rejecting the notion of knowable paradoxes; in other words, even if parallel universes exist, we would remain incapable of knowing such existence due to our limited understanding of the universe at that time period. Shortly after the incident, the Exogenesis Project Committee presented their words, quoting from their chairperson, “We ourselves are puzzled with such a coincidental and profoundly life changing event. While this incident would remain a milestone in our scientific discoveries, it is important to remember the natural intentions of the Exogenesis Project.” The Exogenesis Project was set up in 2027, supervened by the signing of the Peking Protocol of 2026. As a consequence, its predecessor, the failed program called Communication with extraterrestrial intelligence (CETI) was officially abandoned. CETI later developed as an Underground activity. ''Multi-dimensionalism'' Presently, multi-dimensionalism is held high regards among leading scholars. The string theory offered an early model for the development of multi-dimensionalism. The completion of all seven conjectures in the Millennium Prize Problems in 2049 gave birth to another series of new conjectures based on these axioms. The solved conjectures, as expected, provided more clarity in explaining our four-dimensional experiential cognition and multidimensional reality of our universe. We humans occupy four-dimensions in most cases, with a fifth and sixth dimension acting as close boundaries. Other dimensions exist, however are inaccessible under our human conditions, but may be accessible for beings of other properties. The range of possibly dimensions could be an explanation for the reason why we are still unable to precisely locate extraterrestrial neighbors. For more information regarding current spacetime theories and model, visit the category page. Extraterrestrialism The search for extraterrestrial beings has had a breakthrough when multidimensionalism was partially mathematically proven. It is thought that the concept of spacetime and humanly conditions we experience could be different or practically non-existent to specific extraterrestrial life forms. While there is a chance of extraterrestrials occupying similar dimensions of those that we occupy, the chances of them within reachable distance in this universe remains doubtful. The complexities of multidimensionalism and related ideas have cause wide circulation of the agnostic belief, claiming that other dimensions are unknowable in the theory of knowledge. While others still believe that it is only a matter of time that these dimensions are deciphered for human understanding. Moon Dark Side of the Moon '' ''"Dark Side of the Moon" refers to the rear side of the Moon that is semi-permanently turned away from the Earth (although it could artificially be rotated). For the Underground top 20 best-selling album, see: "The Dark Side of the Moon, 1973 album by Pink Floyd". In 2017, a myth with regards to the dark side of the moon, specifically the new discovery of new samples of lunar water, is circulated in the Internet. The myth was shortly debunked, however stemmed fictitious works such as in literature, where alternate history based on this incident was used. ''Lunar Cycle Hypothesis'' The Lunar Cycle Hypothesis was proposed by Kurt in 2018, theorising that life only exists at certain period or periods on the moon, similar to the seasonal weather system of that on Earth. A similar hypothesis was also proposed for Mars. Mars Cydonia (region of Mars) Cydonoia is a region of Mars in which has attracted attention from both the academic fields, popular culture, and even the Underground community. Its reasons for being one of the most popular tourist sites as of 2113 is due to the specific feature in which has been dubbed as the "Face on Mars". The site was temporarily closed down during the early 2060s but reopened at 2083 because of scientific interest and the possibility of progressing in the search for extraterrestrialism. The possibility of extraterrestrialism was later discovered as a hoax conducted by unknown rebels in the Underground community prior to the 2060s, before the site was closed down. Recently, speculations of the site reclosing are risen, rumouring that extraterrestrialism might be possible after all. ''Martian Cycle Hypothesis'' See Lunar Cycle Hypothesis above.